Metal Blade Records

Igorrr: Spirituality and distortion 2020 [Digipack / CD]

With Endarkenment, they maintain their legacy of aural devastation. However, for all the furor they stir up, the duo have never been a twodimensional entity, with a great deal of depth involved in everything that they do, and on many levels the new record is distinguished from its predecessors. One thing that was very clear to the band was the album's title and how prescient it is in current times, standing as the opposite of the Enlightenment, a movement that went against superstition and ignorance.<br/><br/>With laying out a plan and then executing it not conducive to the kind of energetic, chaotic vigor Hunt and multi-instrumentalist Mick Kenney look for, the band follow ideas where they are taken by them and work spontaneously. Coining the phrase "riding a dragon" when recording - "making music with a sense that all you can do is hang on" - this very much embodies the tumultuous racket thrown up by Endarkenment, with its storms of blastbeat driven violence, frenzied riffing and panoramic choruses!

Hate: Auric gates of Veles 2019 [Digipack / CD]

Amon Amarth: Versus the world 2002 (Rem) [CD]

With 2018's Cobra Speed Venom, the band reached the same lofty heights as their 2002 landmark release, Crowned In Terror, but they were primed and ready to write its successor. "It surely set the bar up high for a follow up," Olsfelt explains.<br/>Having celebrated their thirtieth anniversary in 2020 [their first eight years spent as Crown Of Thorns], The Crown have proven themselves one of the most enduring forces in death metal. They further up the ante with Royal Destroyer, a record that sets a new standard for the genre.<br/>Together with legendary producer Fredrik Nordström, the band tracked the resulting 10 songs at Gothenburg's Studio Fredman. "We push ourselves to the limit, really trying to make everything as good as it can get, trying to make every song as impactful as possible," Olsfelt states. While he believes that people need to hear the album themselves to be able to accurately describe it, Olsfelt also asserts that The Crown have achieved something that makes for a "continuous whole" - while being diverse. "We have some of the most intense stuff ever!"<br/><br/>BONUS TRACK(S)<br/>DIGIPAK<br/>DELUXE EDITION

There are few truly unique musical artists, but the music made by MBR arguably exists in a category of its own.<br/>"The main elements include chiptune, demoscene & video game music, thrash/death metal and some black metal as well as classical and symphonic patterns and progressive structures," explains sole progenitor and mastermind MBR. "But everything is programmed and done with synthesizers." The result, influenced as much by classical baroque music, bay area thrash metal, and Commodore 64 games, is a frenzied mashup of what logic suggests should be disparate sounds, but in the hands of MBR make sense, taking the listener in unexpected and always thrilling directions, smashing through genre walls.<br/>FLOPPY DISK OVERDRIVE sees MBR sound evolve again, embracing all of the elements fans have come to expect from the project, but taking a step forward. MBR comments: "This album has got some new Elements such as the synthesized clean guitars sounds which adds that early thrash metal feel - as well as some baroque atmosphere - but the album still features my trademark sound mixing chiptune, classical and metal music." Remaining prolific - and 100% synthetic.

Black Dahlia Murder: Verminous 2020 [Digipack / CD]